May/June 2012

Cover Story

When Andrew Schpak’s term as the ABA YLD Committee Director and a member of the Leadership Advisory Board ended during the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto, he moved on to be the 2011–2012 Conference, Programs & Products Director. This position is a perfect fit for someone with a history of organizing successful social and networking events.

Features

In one of her leadership roles, McKenzie, who made the move to in-house counsel with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in its Employment Practices Division, served as Corporate Counsel Committee Chair, where she spearheaded the effort to ensure an active in-house counsel presence on the Committee.
With five officers representing 150,000 ABA YLD members, McKenzie said, “I’m really looking forward to demonstrating that this is a Division where creative, diverse, and committed people can be leaders and make a difference.”

ABA Day is an annual time for members of the legal profession to make their voices heard regarding the national issues that affect local constituents, particularly in an era of severe budget constraints.

The ABA YLD New Partner and In-House Counsel Conference is unique in that it is designed to provide education and resources for those lawyers who have made partner or gone in-house during the last three years.

As the school year starts to wind down, the days begin to get longer, and the weather finally warms up, young lawyers shine. Young lawyers around the nation continue to make a difference while learning, giving, and having fun. Affiliates are finding new and innovative ways to change their communities and make them better places in which to live and work.

Despite the overall expectation that mentorship programs are a good idea, several affiliates have tried them and been unsuccessful. So what works? And what doesn’t? What’s the difference between the groups that have successful programs and the ones that don’t?

One of the biggest challenges all affiliate leaders face is how to best serve the needs of their members. Your members’ interests are likely to be as varied as the membership’s composition so it is important to remember when creating programming for such a diverse group that one size does not fit all.

Did you have one of those friends in high school with the “cool parents”—the parents who would allow teenagers to drink at their house or provide alcohol to drink, under the mistaken impression that it would be safer for teens to drink in the controlled environment of a house than on a street somewhere?